These stipends received for religious services are provisions that support religious work, like the support that fighters and scholars receive from fayʾ (revenues acquired without fighting). Obligations under Islamic law are waived when there is a valid excuse. These payments are not rewards offered for completing worldly work, nor are they payments under contracts of hire for such services. This is the true nature of these funds. And Allah knows best.

He was asked:

A man endowed a school and stipulated that anyone holding an appointment there must not hold another appointment elsewhere. He assigned each appointee a specified stipend.

He stated in the endowment deed:

“If this school’s revenue decreases because of drought or any other cause, the remaining revenue of this endowment shall be distributed proportionately among those holding appointments there, according to their specified stipends.”

He also stated in the endowment deed:

“If prices rise, the administrator may increase their stipends sufficiently to meet their needs at that time.”

Now, suppose the endowment’s revenue decreases because its endowed assets have diminished, such that annulling this condition prohibiting appointments both there and elsewhere would lead to the school ceasing to function. In these circumstances, may someone appointed there also hold an appointment elsewhere in order to obtain enough to meet his needs, given that the founder took into account adequate support for those appointed there, or as stated above in the clause concerning rising prices—or is this not permissible?